Homebrewing

I enjoy designing and building my own receivers. I made my first radio with a diode and crystal earphone connected to an antenna and ground. All I received was a jumble of stations, but for me it was an amazing accomplishment! With time and perseverance, my understanding of radios improved tremendously. Today I have experience in both solid-state and tube technologies, and my homemade receivers perform as well as many commercial sets. Visit the homemade radios page to see some of the receivers I have designed and built over the years.

Shortwave monitoring

My first shortwave monitoring experience was with a 3-transistor radio kit I built in my early teens. Stations from the UK, USA, Russia and France came in loud and clear, and opened a new world of news and entertainment for me. The first analogue radios I acquired for serious listening had acceptable performance, but locating stations on the dial was largely guesswork. With the advent of microprocessor electronics, superior receivers with digital displays and interference suppression emerged on the market, and made program listening easier and more enjoyable. Check out the world band radios page to see my vintage, analogue and digital Shortwave receivers.

Collecting

I never planned to become a radio collector. The first tube radio I got for my living room triggered a chain reaction. How could I resist the beauty of this nostalgic masterpiece? I was definitely bitten by the antique radio bug, and within a few months, I found myself surrounded with more old radios. The first tube sets in my collection were from Europe, as I admired their Hi Fi sound and elegant craftsmanship. Feeling a need for change, I became interested in the American "AA5" tube radios, which were icons of simplicity and manufacturing cost reduction. Running out of space for large radios, I looked for smaller sets. Transistor radios were the perfect choice. Go to the tube and transistor radio pages and feast your eyes on these beautiful sets.